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Daniel Cormier must not be getting any pay-per-view (PPV) points under the “insane” new ESPN+ deal, because “DC” is not doing a very good job of selling his Stipe Miocic trilogy, recently made official for the UFC 252 heavyweight main event in August.
In fact, the Olympian flat-out told Ariel Helwani (transcribed by MMA Fighting) that he plans to emulate Curtis Blaydes, who happily huffed-and-puffed his way to a stupid-looking victory with a wrestling-based offense in the UFC on ESPN 11 headliner last weekend in Las Vegas.
“I love fighting at the APEX,” Cormier said. “That old leg is gonna be right in front of me to grab. I’ll be like Curtis Blaydes. If you want to see a 25-minute stand-up fight, that’s not what you’re getting. I hope Stipe has his wrestling shoes, because with the small cage, single-leg, single-leg, single-leg, single-leg, wrestling. It is what it is. Sorry.”
Cormier, 41, stopped Miocic in the UFC 226 main event in summer 2018, then went on to notch his first title defense against Derrick Lewis later that year. “DC” would cough up his crown when he rematched Miocic at UFC 241, leaving their rivalry at one apiece.
Win or lose, Cormier (22-2, 1 NC) is expected to retire from mixed martial arts (MMA) at the conclusion of UFC 252. With that in mind, let’s hope for definitive conclusion because a disqualification, blown call, or some other bizarre outcome is likely to drag this thing on until 2021.